CHILDREN ARE NOT AN INTERRUPTION TO THE WORK, THEY ARE THE WORK.Four-year old Kaitlyn was fidgeting with her name tag, taking it on and off, on and off, concentrating more on the sticker than listening to the story about Elijah and the widow. The lesson came to a screeching halt when the name tag tore in half. Kaitlyn ran over to the teacher in tears-the whole class was distracted. But Kaitlyn's teacher turned the interruption into a God moment. She picked up the name tag, removed it from sight, and said, "Kaitlyn, did you know Jesus knows our names even when our name tag falls off?"
Skillfully, the teacher transformed a distraction into a teachable moment, then returned to her lesson with the smoothness of a waltz. These God-moments, are breif windows of time. God opens a door-but it will quickly close if you don't walk through it right away. The moments are disguised as distractions and off-topic questions. They're hidden in interruptions.
As a wise teacher, remember that it's OK to set the curriculum aside for these moments. Don't put a God moment off to the end of the lesson. It might vanish before the lesson's over. Or you'll run out of time. You'll lose that opportunity for kids to experience Biblical truth in a real way.
If you strap yourself to a lesson, you can deadlock the learning process. Instead of feeling guilty or frustrated about a twist, respond with a desire to use the interruption as a teaching tool.
This may not come naturally, at first. Being frustrated is easy-being patient and focused on faith growth is not. But here's the good news: When you seek God's direction, the Holy Spirit will provide the "antennae" to help you recognize-and skillfully utilize-God moments. Sometimes the back roads, the byways of the beaten path, are the ones that lead to the most memorable places.
